Patrick Rothfuss signing The Name of the Wind

The Name of the Wind is Rothfuss' outstanding debut fantasy, famed for its precise execution. Kvothe. the hero and villain of a thousand tales, lives as the simple proprietor of the Waystone Inn. Prompted by a biographer, Kvothe starts to tell his life story. From his upbringing as an actor in his family's traveling troupe of magicians, jugglers and jesters, the Edema Ruh, to feral child on the streets of the vast port city of Tarbean, then his education at ‘the University’, Kvothe is driven by twin imperatives - his desire to learn the higher magic of naming and his need to discover as much as possible about the Chandrian, the demons of legend who murdered his family. As absorbing on a second reading as it is on the first, this is the type of assured, rich first novel most writers can only dream of producing.

Patrick Rothfuss lives in central Wisconsin where he teaches at the local university. In his free time Pat writes a satirical humor column, practices civil disobedience, and dabbles in alchemy.